Blog: Ripcord

The May 21, 2015 edition of My Daily Bread (a daily blog) is titled New Start for a Broken Heart. The first sentence grabbed my attention: The Museum of Broken Relationships in Zagreb, Croatia, is filled with anonymously donated remnants of love gone wrong. The article continues with a partial list of items on display there. I wonder if any ripcords are on display.

The ripcord could be a poignant symbol of failed love in our culture. The symbols we use to convey permanence of commitment within a relationship are diminished when the parties include what amounts to a ripcord. The hand-shake that closes a deal becomes a fist when trust is betrayed. A heart that was open and vulnerable for the other closes tight in self-defense: no joy, just pain.

Everyone can know that non-fiction love is possible – where the one we love is willing to die for us. The reality of non-fiction love is demonstrated every day in the presence of trust and the absence of the need for escape mechanisms. At every Cursillo, I ask the Candidates on Thursday evening to extend to the team the act of trust they put in their sponsor. Cursillo is a weekend experience of non-fiction love. In effect, we ask the Candidates to check their ripcords at the door, to be vulnerable for three days, and to let the Holy Spirit have its way with them. The testimony we hear at each closing is evidence from the new Cursillistas that they have found trust to be the keystone of love.

Making a friend means being trustworthy.

Being a friend means being vulnerable for the other.

Bringing a friend to Christ is introducing the friend to Jesus who has been patiently awaiting the introduction.